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SFD Qualitative Study on Impact of the 2011 Events on Communities

A qualitative study carried out by the SFD pointed out to aggravation of development needs in Yemen as a result of the events of 2011 on lives of the people in the urban and rural areas. The events were accompanied by different social and economic behavior and styles aimed at accessing those services. What made the situation worse was stopping the progress of most government and non government development projects and of small factories and workshops having their workers to laid off.

A qualitative study carried out by the SFD pointed out to aggravation of development needs in Yemen as a result of the events of 2011 on lives of the people in the urban and rural areas. The events were accompanied by different social and economic behavior and styles aimed at accessing those services. What made the situation worse was stopping the progress of most government and non government development projects and of small factories and workshops having their workers to laid off.

The SFD study aimed at identifying the results of impacts of 2011 events on the target communities and the ways they used to overcome them, and their impacts on the SFD activities and efforts of development. The study framework andtools were based onqualitative data that used a group of participatory tools taken from the actual field visits.The data were analyzed and results extracted in a methodological manner.The study was conducted on 74 urban and rural areas distributed in 47 districts within 20 governorates.

The most remarkable findings of the study are:

The economic and tourism activities were greatly affected due to the rise in prices , shortage of fuel and some commodities and services, as well as their insufficient supply in the local markets, which led to the increase of monopoly practices, in addition to the difficult access of those commodities to the market due to high transportation cost, blocking of roads resulting of the security deterioration , and the low purchasing power that accompanied the events, as well as the considerable deterioration in wages, work opportunities ,and low income.

Emergence of selling productive assets by the poor families (selling their livestock, even selling personal belongings like gold, weapons, and valuables). This is for the purpose of having cashfor facing the necessary living costs.

As savings were spent out in different areas of the study, spending went for very essential needs, particularly for health, education , etc. New spending behavior appeared to cope with the new needs such as spending on alternative lighting materials due to the total electrical power cuts, as well as the increase in expenditure for domestic gas, while the cost of getting potable water almost doubled particularly in the major cities. This is beside the increase in cost of looking for housing, and the cost of displacement by some families who were forced to flee away especially from tension areas .

It was also noticed that the burdens of rural women increased, which led women in some target areas to work in farms with meager wages. This is in addition to selling their jewelry to help face the living requirements and reducing life burdens, as well as providing wood for fuel instead of the unavailable domestic gas, in addition to the burdens of fetching water due to shortage and rising costs.

The situation also negatively affected sending children to schools and enrolling them in education, beside the low percentage of outreach and benefitting from the educational and health services particularly in the countryside due the rising transportation costs.

A very obvious and well noted subject was the issue of reverse migration from urban to rural areas in most areas of the study. This was due to people losing their jobs and income resources in the urban areas. This issue led to the increase in unemployment ,and rise of pressure on resources in the rural areas despite their scarcity, as well as the suspension of money remittance as one of the financial resources that used to come from the city to the countryside, as a result of unavailability of work in urban areas and migration to the countryside. This consequently led to the aggravation of the poverty problem in the countryside.

The irrigation-dependent agricultural production was greatly affectedas a resultof the high cost and shortage of diesel and oil products in many targeted areas. Production was also affected due to the rise in cost of agricultural inputs, transportation of agricultural products, andthe blockage of roads, which affected marketing of these products, and consequently the supply to the markets of the main cities.

A considerable weakness in the ability of providing health services as needed had accompanied the rise of oil products cost. This led to failure to operate equipment in hospitals and health centers and to face the contagious diseases in urban and rural areas. Service facilities were also directly affectedparticularlyin the tension areas, including schools, health centers, and government buildings, where some facilities were used as military barracks.

On the other hand, some positive aspects resulted likethe increase in social solidarity in some target areas and involving some civil society organizations to establish cooperation with the affected communities.

However, the events in some areas were accompanied by other negative behaviors such as the increase inillegal migration (smuggling)practices , carrying weapons in main cities, thefts, roads blocking, as well as begging by (men, women ,children). In addition, environmental problems increased in urban areas due to pollution, accumulation of rubbish, and sewage overflowing(especially sewers) resulting in the spread of diseases.

For coping with the above findings, the local communities resorted to alternative behaviors and practices to keep living, and provide subsistence and survival requirements. These practices included reducing spending and abandon luxury and even dispense with many food ingredients. In addition, other economic behaviors increased such as borrowing from each other, selling belongings, using savings to provide cash, selling assets like land, animals … etc. in some rural areas in order to live up to the living cost and burdens, and a reverse behaviors of some semi-urban areas to start raising livestock as a source of food.

The SFD has built on the findings of this study during the development ofpolicies related to the implementation of different activities in order to be more effectively responsive to the actual development requirements